1. Field
Apparatuses and methods consistent with exemplary embodiments relate to service discovery in a Wi-Fi direct (WFD) network, and more particularly, to discovering services, which may be used by devices within the WFD network in a layer 2 pre-association stage, by using layer 2 Wi-Fi protected setup (WPS) information elements (IE).
2. Description of the Related Art
A Wi-Fi direct (WFD) network is a network system suggested by the Wi-Fi Alliance that enables Wi-Fi devices to be connected to each other in a peer-to-peer fashion without participating in a home network, an office network, or a hot-spot network.
Devices within a WFD network may be capable of discovering information regarding each other, e.g., capability information. For discovery of information regarding devices and supported service capabilities, discovery protocols corresponding to layer 3 or higher of the 7 layer OSI model have been used in the related art. Layer 3 or higher protocols include universal plug and play (UPnP), a simple service discovery protocol (SSDP), zero configuration networking (ZeroConf), and DNS service discovery (DNS-SD).
However, an operation of determining services that may be supported by a device by using a layer 3 or higher protocol starts after a layer 2 connection to a corresponding device is established. If the corresponding device is then determined as a device unable to satisfy service demands of a user, it is necessary to terminate the existing layer 2 connection to the corresponding device, establish a new layer 2 connection to a new device, and discover services that may be supported by the new device.
Therefore, because a small mobile device has a small battery capacity, a new method for discovery of services that may be supported by a device in a layer 2 pre-association stage can improve energy efficiency and a user experience.